2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Humanities and social science courses
History of Science A
- Academic unit or major
- Humanities and social science courses
- Instructor(s)
- Yoshimi Takuwa
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - Class
- -
- Course Code
- LAH.T102
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
This lecture offers the history of science from the point of view of relatively viewing the situation surrounding modern science.
It is essential to understand a lot about scientific activities to learn and study scientific knowledge. Are the scientific activities that we now take for granted (for example, there is an occupation of scientists, theories and experiments work together to make progress, and achievements are published in academic societies, etc.) common since early times? If not, how did these activities emerge and become common? This lecture cultivates the point of view of staying active in the field of ‘science’ that will continue to change in the future, by viewing things relatively which have value at this moment.
Course description and aims
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) Understand the origin of science and scientific activities, and their changes.
2) Grasp relatively the present scientific activities and university education on the basis of the flow of history.
Keywords
History of Science, History of Philosophy, Scientist, University
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
A theme (a question) will be discussed in each class.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Guidance: Introduction to the history of ‘science’ | Understand what the discipline of the history of science is. |
| Class 2 | Since when have the classifications of mathematics and physics existed? | Understand the changes of the classifications in science. |
| Class 3 | Since when have universities existed? | Understand the rise of medieval universities. |
| Class 4 | Who were scientists? | Understand how the occupation of scientist emerged. |
| Class 5 | Did theories and experiments work together to make progress? | Understand how experimental science began. |
| Class 6 | How were scientists educated? | Understand the changes of science education. |
| Class 7 | Where are scientists now? What are scientists doing now? | Understand present scientists’ activity and their career development. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
None required.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Yasu Furukawa, Social History of Science (Chikuma Shobō, 2018). (Japanese text)
Michiyo Nakane et al., Is Scientific Truth Absolute? (Beret Publishing, 2009). (Japanese text)
Evaluation methods and criteria
Engagement to the class (attendance and short reports) 50 %, Midterm report 30 %, Final exam 20%
Related courses
- LAH.T103 ： History of Technology A
- LAH.T203 ： History of Technology B
- LAH.T303 ： History of Technology C
- LAH.T202 ： History of Science B
- LAH.T302 ： History of Science C
- LAH.T204 ： Special Lecture: History of Universities
Prerequisites
Mainly use materials and videos translated in Japanese and partially use videos in English.
It is preferable to have intermediate-level capacity for reading Japanese and elementary-level capacity for listening to English.